ADDY

An entry on how I chose that horse, or how we chose each other.

This was the second class of the day. There were 3 horses. And we were each asked to say hi to each horse and choose one that you wanted to work with.

There was this broad male horse that was young, active, dominant, healthy and energetic.
There was this other horse, a submissive tender female horse that seemed really nice and gentle.

Then there was this smaller horse, off by itself, really restless, seemingly bored and anxious at the same time, hooving at the gate as if waiting to get out of the ring.
He immediately reminded me of myself. I too was hyperactive, comfortable to be doing my own thing away from the pack, and at times anxious about the situations. I nicknamed him ADDY, because he seemed quite ADD (attention-deficit disorder), and I chose to work with him.

In retrospect, I think what drew me to him was the fact that he seemed complex. I wanted to figure him out, help him out by easing his anxieties. Perhaps its no surprise that the other two medical students also chose him.

Turns out he was an older Ararbian horse, a breed of horse that gets bored easily, is very intelligent, and he was also past his prime so he didn't care much about trying to mate with the female horse who was in heat. Can't say the same about the broad young male horse.

We are drawn to other people who are similar to us. We also tend to see qualities in other people in terms of ourselves- how are they similar and how are they different? As a budding psychiatrist, I think its important to keep these in minds. The one person we know best is ourselves, and understanding ourselves, our personality and traits can help us understand the human mind and how other people are. But at the same time, this can blind us as we think from a subjective perspective, an egocentric one perhaps, that is framed by who we are and who we are not. Something to keep in mind.

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